Electric

Negotiations between Chrysler and Fiat regarding an alliance have now turned to production capabilities, and an anonymous source has revealed that three Chrysler plants are under consideration for possible re-tooling, at which point they will build Fiat vehicles, as well as Chrysler-badged vehicles...

Nissan's electric vehicle (EV) involvement in Project Better Place programs in Denmark and Israel, plus test fleets in its home market of Japan will be joined by a new agreement with the state of Arizona. The deal will have cars hitting the streets of Phoenix late next year, and will see...

One of the biggest criticisms of electric vehicles is the limited driving range they offer when compared with conventional diesel and petrol powered cars. However, the belief that driving an electric vehicle will leave you stranded after a couple dozen miles is starting to lose credibility, fast...

Picture it: 200mi on a single charge, 80mph top speed and a purchase price of just $30,000 - not a recipe for success for a standard combustion engine car, but a very reasonable proposition for a mass-market electric car. And that's exactly what EV Innovations is proposing with its Wave electric...

Already angling for sales in excess of 20,000 units annually, Mitsubishi took the opportunity of the New York Auto Show to announce it will be selling the i-MiEV electric car in the U.S. and other global markets. The car is already in testing in California, Oregon, Tucson and elsewhere, but the...

The industry is in pain, but it's still planning for the future. Today that's clear nowhere more so than at Mitsubishi, which has just announced it will be upping its production target of the iMiEV to 20,000 units annually by 2012 up 200% on previous goals of 10,000 per year. Output targets for...

The roll-out of Fisker’s new Karma plug-in hybrid luxury saloon is going smoothly, with the company announcing that they have already signed up 32 dealers in the U.S. and should have a total of 40 onboard by the end of June. There are already 1,300 pre-orders for the car, which starts at a...

It's not often that major automakers push production dates ahead in time rather than back, especially with the current economic conditions, but Nissan might be doing just that with its electric vehicle program. While earlier Nissan was claiming that its first mass-produced electric vehicle would...

As the traditional car industry struggles against a lack of consumer credit, economic instability and its own growing pains, several of the major players are forging ahead with next-generation vehicle programs, including all-electric zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs). Nissan has been at the forefront...

Following the announcement of the proposed alliance between Fiat and Chrysler in January, the question on everybody’s lips was which European top-sellers were finally going to come to North America. Stylish compact cars like the Fiat 500 and Bravo were suddenly a very real possibility for...

Tesla's first all-original car, the upcoming Model S plug-in hybrid sedan, is due to be unveiled to the public in just a week’s time but the company has already released a couple of teaser shots - one showing the undercarriage and another showing the new glasshouse. In the lead up to the...

The Zero EV was originally designed by Britain’s NICE car company, the maker of the MyCar, Ze-O and the Mega City, but from the start its gestation has been handled by design teams in Italy. The goal for the Zero EV was to create a “high performance” micro-EV with a little Italian...

Environmentally friendly electrical utilities company Ecotricity has been selling green electricity for over a decade, but its founder Dale Vince has decided to take on a more ambitious project: to build a good looking, "wind-powered" electric sports car. Currently, Vince is working with a team of...

If the futurism of the 1950s and 1960s taught us anything as a culture, it's that what seems a sure thing today may prove laughably optimistic in a few decades. Stefan Jacoby, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, thinks a similar situation is playing out with electric cars today. Jacoby's main...

Fiat Group, Chrysler and its parent company Cerberus Capital Management in January released a joint statement announcing they had signed a non-binding term sheet to establish a global strategic alliance. The alliance, a key element of Chrysler’s viability plan, would provide the American...

After months of conjecture and Toyota’s own claims for the fuel-economy of its new Prius, came the release last week of “preliminary” Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ratings for the new model. In their haste, the EPA and Toyota had made a slight error in those original...

ECOtality has partnered with Nissan and the Pima Association of Governments to bring a new zero-emissions initiative to the Tucson, Arizona region. By pairing prototype EVs and a new charging network, Nissan hopes to further expand its development of practical research into widespread use of...

Pininfarina gave up contract manufacturing last year to focus solely on building electric vehicles (EVs). At the Geneva Motor Show this week, the company has reworked their B0 Concept into a more palatably-named BLUECAR EV, with more details on its expected production plans. The B0/Bluecar EV was...

The times, they are a changin'. Carmakers that had seemed bulletproof, or at least too big to fail, are teetering on the brink of insolvency. Government regulations and stipulations on loan money are cinching down emissions and efficiency requirements. And tax incentives are spurring development of...

Fisker Automotive is less than a year away from launching its new Karma plug-in hybrid luxury saloon, arguably one of the most stylish looking cars on the auto show circuit, not to mention one of the cleanest too. While big name carmakers like General Motors and Toyota struggle to launch...